A Healer's Mission
by HaiJu
Summary: The end of Sasuke and Naruto's final battle, and what it means for Sakura. Slight AU. Formerly a oneshot, now being expanded. This is my first Naruto fanfic! Please R&R! On HIATUS. Sorry!
1. Prologue

_**A Healer's Mission**_

_**By: HJ**_

_**Rating: T**_

_**Summary: The end of Sasuke and Naruto's final battle, and what it means for Sakura. AU. Oneshot.**_

_**Pairings: Sakura/Sasuke  
**_

_**AU: Diverges after manga chapter 345.  
**_

_**A/N: This has been done about a zillion times, I know, but I wanted to do my take on it. Stands alone, though it was intended for a longer (unfinished) story. This is my first Naruto fanfic! Please read and review. Thank you! -HJ  
**_

* * *

A Healer's Mission

-o-o-

**She was almost too late.**

_The valley they had fought in was once a forest. Now it was a smoking crater. Both were exhausted—bloody, trembling, sweaty. But Sasuke stood, and Naruto was on his knees._

**She drove chakra into her legs, forcing the muscles beyond endurance. Ash scattered as she blurred through charred and broken forest. **

_Sasuke picked up his katana. Naruto glared up at him, too exhausted to even form a seal._

_**Please, let me make it,**_** she begged silently.**

_The sword rose. Sasuke's arms shook with effort._

_**Please…**_** She cleared the last tree. Her heart stopped at what she saw.**

_Naruto flung his head up and looked Sasuke square in the eye, though she could see him trembling all over. The Uchiha's face was crystalline, expressionless. The blade whistled down._

**A medic nin must be calm.**

"_Naruto!" her voice screamed, knowing it wouldn't stop the blade._

**A medic nin must be strong.**

_She felt tears streaming back across her face, stolen by the wind as she flung herself toward them._

**A medic nin must never, ever be injured in battle.**

_Steel met flesh._

**It is the most important rule.**

_Blood, warm and scarlet, darkened the ashen ground._

**For if the healer died, who would heal?****  
**

_She met his cold red gaze, watching it fade to obsidian, seeing what might have been shock tauten his serene features. Her fingers curled around cool metal; the razor edge sliced her palm. Blood, warm and scarlet, trickled down to join the darker stain spreading from her stomach._

_It was the first time in years that she had seen him up close. _

_Strange, her mind thought hazily. _

_He's still beautiful._

_Sakura smiled._

-o-o-


	2. Fight

_A/N:_

_I'm still looking for a beta, but I'll go ahead and start posting._

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**WARNINGS**

_T__his is an **incomplete **story. I know some people don't like reading fanfics that are never finished, so be aware that this one hasn't been fully written, and may never be. It completely depends on time, inspiration, and the response I get from you, the readers._

_I will probably come back and edit/expand chapters, but not until the entire story is complete--unless there are glaring typos or something._

_I'm back in school, so updates might be sporadic. I'll try to post a chapter every two weeks._

_Strong **Sasuke****/Sakura** implications. Lots of melodrama, possible mush and fluff in the future. Don't like, don't read. If it's too late and you've already read it, be nice but be honest. Oh, and no citrus fruits whatsoever._

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_Reviews will be loved! Flames will be used to roast chibi Akatsuki!_

_HJ_

* * *

**_Chapter Two_**

**'0' **

"Sa—Sakura-chan?" She turned her head to look down into bright blue eyes. Naruto looked frightened, bewildered.

"Stupid," she cuffed him lightly on the head. "You're not allowed to die yet."

The slight movement shot pain through her waist and knifing up her spine. Her nerves finally caught up with what her eyes were seeing—namely, the sword skewering her torso— and seared her vision into sharp white. With a moan, she crumpled.

The sword, still clenched in Sasuke's hands, tore into her viciously as her weight dragged at it, adding new adjectives of agony to the sickening message her body drove into her senses. A scream caught in her throat and was strangled as she found it suddenly impossible to breathe. Sakura plucked at the steel helplessly with one hand; she felt nauseated.

"Sasuke!" A sharp rebuke, edged with raw pain—Naruto.

Sasuke blinked and dropped the sword like it had burned him; Sakura fell. Someone caught her clumsily just before she hit the ground. She closed her eyes, feeling the warmth pool around her torso. Pain faded into something grey and fuzzy and not entirely unpleasant. _Mmm__…_

"Sakura-chan? Sakura-chan?" Naruto's panicked voice brought her back, and with awareness came agony. Her hand tightened convulsively on the katana; she felt blood running from her fist. The fresh pain of the cut brought her fully awake. She could sense Naruto hovering over her, his fear a tangible presence.

"Naruto," she gasped, not opening her eyes. "Take it out."

"But you'll bleed to—"

"Do it!" She took a deep, slow breath, trying not to move. "I think I can… I _can _heal myself. But I need you to do this first, okay?" She kept her voice calm, hoping to soothe the blond, though she knew what she was about to try was next to impossible. She had no regenerative jutsu like Tsunade's; she would have to repair the damage manually, and _that_ required concentration and chakra, lots of it. She had wasted a lot of hers getting here.

_Not wasted,_ she reminded herself. _I got here in time._

Sakura bit back a scream as the steel slid from her body. She even managed to smile when Naruto grabbed her hand and squeezed it tight.

It was the wrong thing to do.

Naruto's grip redoubled, and his voice cracked. "Sakura-chan…"

She pulled her hands from his and, using chakra to quell the numbing grip of shock, shakily formed the familiar hand seals. As the warm, healing chakra covered her hands, she lowered them and pressed them against her stomach.

So much damage…Sakura forced herself to concentrate. Rebuild the organs…purge the blood…knit the muscles and tissues back in perfect order…hiss at how close it had come to the spine, then move on to reconnect the severed tendons...

As long as she blocked the pain, as long as she kept her eyes shut, she could pretend it was someone else's life she fought for. She had done it countless times, sometimes for strangers, but more often for friends. Those were the times that worry chewed at her gut, wondering when the damage would be too great—wondering how much she could save, this time.

It wasn't enough. She could feel her chakra waning long before she could afford it to. The long run and the wound itself had weakened her. Tremors ran down her arms as she reached the limits of her stamina. Then two callused palms settled over her hands, and a surge of bright, warm chakra flowed into them. Her eyes flew open to search Naruto's serious face.

"It helped Obaa-chan bring Gaara back," he said simply. "Let me help you, too."

She nodded without a word and closed her eyes again.

It was an eternity—hours? Minutes?—before her professional mind was satisfied. The injury was not entirely healed, but it was no longer fatal or crippling. The patient would make it. Sakura sighed and opened her eyes. She would make it.

She pushed Naruto's hands away, cancelling the healing jutsu. He studied her expression. "You did it?"

Sakura smiled reassuringly. "I'll live."

He heaved a sigh and sat back. "Don't _do_ that, Sakura-chan," he complained wearily. "I'm not worth dying for."

"I'll be the judge of that," she replied archly. "I couldn't have done it without your chakra," she added in a softer tone. "Thank you, Naruto."

"No problem, Sakura-chan…" he mumbled, beginning to droop. "I…owed you..." He slumped forward over her and lay still.

"Naruto?!" Sakura jerked upright with a chill of fear, ignoring the ache in her freshly healed side and the dizzying headache from chakra overuse. _Stupid, _she cursed herself. Of course he was injured! Her hands fluttered over his limp form, looking for a wound that was potentially deadly.

"Chakra exhaustion," a voice stated as she turned him over and found, to her immense relief, that he was still breathing. She started as she recognized the voice.

"Sasuke-kun," she said simply, without agression or affection.

"He had completely drained his chakra reserves," Sasuke continued in a neutral voice, sounding almost bored. "He shouldn't have been able to give you anything without killing himself."

She smiled down at the unconscious shinobi fondly. "He _is_ Konoha's most surprising ninja." She glanced over Naruto's injuries with a critical eye. None of them were life-threatening. It was a good thing, because Sakura didn't have the strength to heal a paper cut at the moment.

Her eyes flitted again to Sasuke, crouched comfortably a dozen feet away. He seemed better off than Naruto, if only just. He had not retrieved his katana; it lay in the dirt out of reach, where Naruto had thrown it. It looked like Sasuke hadn't moved since he'd dropped the sword. Maybe he hadn't.

"Why?" Sakura voiced her thoughts.

The Uchiha blinked and stared at her.

"Why are you still here?" she elaborated.

Sasuke stared for a moment longer, then looked away. Sakura sighed in quiet frustration. _Stupid uncommunicative __Uchihas_ "Are you going back with us?"

"No." He gazed off somewhere beyond the ruined trees, where the sun burned the horizon.

"Do you want to kill us?"

The eyes snapped back.

"…No."

"Then what do you want?" But the Uchiha turned away and refused to respond.

Giving up on him, Sakura struggled to roll the unconscious blond into a more comfortable position. She was dead tired herself, but wary of falling asleep. As much as she wanted to trust her former teammate, as a shinobi she knew it would be inexcusably stupid. No matter what he said.

Sakura hissed quietly as she saw the dark, angry burns on Naruto's side.

_Chidori_

She opened the pouch at her belt and took out the burn salve Hinata had given her. 'Just in case', the Hyuuga had said softly, pressing it into her hands with a shy smile. Sakura was grateful for it now. She gently applied it to the worst of the burn. She frowned at the wound beneath them. It was deep and jagged; without help from the kyuubi's power or a medical jutsu, the scarring would be thick and painful and probably hinder Naruto's agility. She made a mental not to heal it more effectively later.

"Itachi is dead."

Sakura paused, then resumed her ministrations. "You killed him."

"Tch." Sasuke sounded disgusted. "He was nearly blind from the mangekyou. It was pathetic."

Unsure how to respond to that, Sakura put away the salve and picked up a roll of bandages. For a long while, silence settled over them. Any bird or insect that might have sung had long ago fled the destruction. A breeze swirled ash in cloudy eddies over the singed grass.

Naruto's deep, harsh breathing sawed at the silence. Sakura felt his cracked ribs and reassured herself that none of them had caused internal damage. She bound up the slash on his arm, trimming the end of the bandage with a kunai. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that a kunai had also found its way into Sasuke's hand. He held it idly, occasionally scratching its tip into the dirt at his feet, but she knew it was a safeguard.

Against her.

Her lip twitched.

In addition to the more serious injuries, Naruto had managed to collect more cuts, bumps and scrapes than the old practice dummies at the academy. She spent some time going through them and wrapping the deeper gashes. None posed a threat individually; collectively, the cuts threatened to drain more blood to than he could afford to lose. Which certainly wouldn't help him recover his chakra. She massaged her temple absently, wishing she'd brought her soldier pills.

"You can sleep," Sasuke said suddenly.

Sakura looked up, surprised. In the gathering dark his face was little more than a pale blur; she could make out none of his expression.

Not that it would have made much of a difference.

"Sleep," he said again, not unkindly. "I won't kill you."

"That's comforting," Sakura retorted wryly, resisting the urge to remind Sasuke of exactly who was better at keeping his word. "But you're not the only missing-nin after our necks." There was always the Akatsuki. Not to mention that Tsunade would probably be after them next… Sakura cringed and shied away from that thought.

It wouldn't be the first time she'd pulled an all-night shift. The first time…

Her smile turned wistful despite herself.

"Do you remember that first Chuunin exam?" she voiced her thoughts, not really expecting an answer, just filling the silence. "That was the first time I really had to keep watch all night. It was just after Orichimaru…" she broke off and shrugged, cutting off another strip of gauze with her kunai and tucking it under securely. Everything had changed with the Sannin's appearance. It had been the death of Team Seven, even if they hadn't realized it at the time.

"You're a medic nin."

She stopped to stare at him. She wasn't sure what threw her more—the fact that Sasuke was actually trying to make conversation, or the question itself. It had become such a part of her; she could barely imagine herself as anything else. Sakura set Naruto's arm down gently. "That's right—you wouldn't know."

"Should I have?" Cold, disinterested, laced with arrogance, as if trying to make up for a moment before.

She didn't deign to answer.

Sakura put her medical supplies away. It was getting to dark to see, and she was running out of bandages, anyway. The kunoichi dragged her legs into a sitting position that wasn't too uncomfortable; they still ached from the forcible boost in chakra she'd used earlier. Sakura lifted Naruto's shoulders and position his head in her lap. The hand with the kunai she rested over his torso, protecting his vitals; the other she ran through his blond spikes, absently checking for injury as her more feminine side enjoyed the softness. Even with all the dirt and tangles, Naruto's hair was the softest she'd ever touched. It was almost…furry.

She let her eyes slide half shut. Too alert for sleep, but it lent her a kind of semi-awareness that allowed her body at least some of the rest it so badly needed. Her breathing slowed, and her eyelids drifted down a little further.

"You're good."

Sakura's eyes snapped open. Had Uchiha Sasuke just…complimented her? Grudgingly, yes, but directly, no pretense or putting down. A small smile that the twilight hid touched her lips.

"One of the best."

**'0'**


	3. News

_Ugh. Remind me why I'm posting this monstrosity again? Oh, yes. Concrit! Please, if you read this, review and tell me what you think about it. In detail, preferably. This is a WIP and I really need help improving it. By the way--THANK YOU to the four that reviewed and put me on alert! You have encouraged me to keep hacking away at this project, instead of letting it molder away in a drawer. Anyway, on to chapter three! If people still read it after this boring little chapter, I'll consider this story rewritable. -HJ_

* * *

**Chapter Three **

** -0-**

Sasuke jerked awake. He scanned the area, reflexively reaching for his katana—

Which wasn't there.

Then he remembered: Naruto. The battle.

Sakura.

He shivered, and it wasn't just because of the dewy chill that clung to the valley.

Night was almost over. The stars had dimmed, and to the east the darkness paled to tones of hazy gray. For a shinobi with the sharp eyes of Sharingan, it was already light He could see clearly his two former teammates; Naruto, sprawled on his back, dead to the world in every sense except literal. Sakura drooped over him like a thirsty flower.

One pale arm she had draped across the blond's chest; the other curled protectively around her own torso, as if in memory of the wound. She was dozing, eyes lidded, but Sasuke was certain that if he so much as twitched in Naruto's direction, the pink haired kunoichi would be instantly alert.

He had seen her coming. With the Sharingan activated, it would have been impossible not to. But it was far too late to do more than turn the blade and pray it wouldn't be fatal.

And he had turned the blade—and prayed—and felt the icy claws of fear dig into his stony heart.

It disturbed him, how much it had scared him to see her there, life pouring out in a scarlet river around his blade. He had been transfixed where he stood, first in shock and terror, then with something close to awe as the young woman he had once known as Sakura drew herself from the brink of death. He remembered thinking, _This is Sakura_?

Naruto had ignored him since Sakura's appearance, except for once, as he shared his chakra with the girl. He'd looked up, the blue-green glow of Sakura's healing jutsu lighting eerily a face pale with blood lost and chakra depletion, turning his eyes an electric shade of blue.

"She better not die," was all he said.

Then his eyes locked on Sakura's face once more.

As he watched them now in the predawn, Sasuke felt the stirrings of something. It was…a troubled feeling; something stirring deep within the icebox where he stored away his emotions. He turned a kunai over and over in his hands, examining the feeling with detached curiosity.

What was it?

Envy? Regret? Longing?

The two of them seemed so different together. Sakura had none of her scornful edge when speaking of the blond. And Naruto… Sasuke allowed himself a smirk. No. Naruto had barely changed at all. He was just as loud, and just as stubborn. And he was still single-mindedly devoted to those he called friends.

But they had grown closer, that much was clear. They were there for each other. They were ready to die for each other.

Had he ever trusted anyone that much?

Had he ever been stupid enough to throw his life away for some idiot ninja who didn't know when to quit?

His mind flashed back to a moment when senbons sang through the air, their trajectory terribly clear to a newly awakened Sharingan. He remembered darting into their path, a single thought burning past all else in his mind:

_Protect._

He remembered seeing the sand ninja transform into a monster—a thing that had even Naruto, the ninja who was too stupid to be afraid of anything, quaking. In that moment, he had forgotten everything in the fierce, desperate impulse to _protect_ the lives that he had come to value. Right then he would have done anything for them.

Then Itachi came, and he realized what a fool he'd been to neglect his hatred.

_Weak._

His bonds had made him weak. So he had broken those bonds, and gone to Orichimaru. And when Orichimaru could no longer teach him, he broke that bond as well.

Now Itachi was dead.The avenger was sated, and his mission…his ambition complete. He had disbanded Hebi before his brother's ashes had turned cold; the final bond with his past, broken. And then Sasuke was left with the question all avengers must face sooner or later.

What now?

_**- **__** 0'**__** -**_

"Psst, Sasuke!"

Sasuke's head snapped up, and he realized first that he'd nodded off again, and second, that it was late morning. He frowned, annoyed at himself. The fight with Naruto had drained him more than he wanted to admit; he'd probably have to sleep for a week to fully recover.

Sasuke blinked down at the ninja cat at his feet. "What is it, Denka?" he asked, shaking off his drowsiness. "Enemies?"

The cat cocked his head to one side, yellow eyes flicking to the two sleeping figures not far off. "Maybe to some, maybe to all. Or maybe not."

"A simple answer will suffice," Sasuke cut in icily. He was too sore and tired to deal with the cat's roundabout way of speaking.

Denka took the hint and sat up straighter, dropping his nonchalant attitude. "Two Akatsuki members approaching, perhaps an hour from here. Less, if they hurry."

Sasuke stiffened. Behind Denka he saw Sakura twitch.

"Are you certain?"

The cat smirked. "Absolutely, Sasuke. Black cloaks, red clouds. Purple fingernails. It's _them_."

"Do they know I'm here?"

"Probably. You weren't exactly disguising your chakra yesterday." From Denka's tone, he obviously disapproved.

Sasuke cursed. He stared out into space, his sharp mind spinning out scenarios, motives, outcomes, analyzing the possibilities. Finally he refocused on the cat and inclined his head slightly. "Thank you."

The cat stood up and stretched elegantly. "Anything else?"

Sasuke nodded. "Keep an eye on them for a while longer. Try to discover their identities, and if you can, what they're after. But don't get caught."

The cat smirked again and winked. "Got it." He vanished in a cloud of smoke.

Sasuke looked at Sakura. She was sitting up, all pretense of sleep abandoned, staring at him mutely.

"Akatsuki is coming," he said unnecessarily.

She nodded. "I heard."

"You know who they are?" She nodded again. He stood up, a trifle stiffly because of his wounds and the awkward position he'd slept in. Sakura saw his wince and frowned at him, but Sasuke ignored her. "Then you know it would be best to leave." He picked up his katana and wiped it clean on a corner of his tattered shirt before sheathing it in one fluid motion.

Sakura flicked Naruto in the forehead. "Na-ruto! Time to get up!" She sang in a sugary voice that made Sasuke cringe.

"It's useless," Sasuke commented after several minutes of this with no results. "He's practically comatose." Not even Naruto could use that much chakra without consequences.

"Don't be silly," Sakura puffed a stray hair out of her face with an annoyed expression. "He's just being difficult." Her face suddenly lit up, and she gave him a sadistic grin. "I know..."

The kunoichi bent low and muttered something in Naruto's ear. Sasuke only caught one or two words—'Icharaku', 'fish', and 'Akatsuki', but the result was instantaneous.

"Gyaah!" Naruto shot upright, blue eyes blazing open. "Not the RAMEN!"

Sakura smirked.

The blond blinked. "Oh! Sakura-chan?"

He turned to her, missing the Uchiha completely in his confusion. Sasuke resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He was beginning to wonder how, exactly, Naruto had survived so long as a ninja.

"Naruto, the Akatsuki are on their way."

Naruto groaned and flopped back down. "Don't they ever give up?" he complained. "You'd think that after I'd kicked four of their—defeated three of them," he hastily corrected himself as Sakura glared, "They'd take the hint."

Sasuke blinked. Naruto and Sakura thought the Akatsuki were after _them_?

No. Not them.

_Kyuubi_

Sasuke wasn't sure what Akatsuki had in mind for the nine-tailed beast, but he should have remembered that they wanted it. It was what had led to his disastrous first encounter with Itachi, after all.

"That won't be a problem. We're going to leave before they get here."

Naruto crossed his arms. "I don't like running, Sakura-chan."

"Don't be an idiot, Naruto."

"He's always been an idiot. Why stop now?" Sasuke hadn't meant to comment—really. The insult just slipped out, as naturally as breathing.

Naruto's head whipped around. His jaw dropped comically as he caught sight of the Uchiha. "_Sasuke_?"

Sasuke crossed his arms and scowled. Now he really wished he hadn't spoken.

Naruto pointed an accusing finger at Sasuke. "What is he doing here?" he shouted. Sasuke raised an eyebrow mockingly. Three years certainly hadn't improved the blond's intelligence.

"Naruto," Sakura said in a warning tone. "Akatsuki, remember?" He stuck his tongue out at her, but listened.

Sasuke snorted and turned away. _Moron.  
_

"None of us are in any shape to fight right now. We'll be doing good if we can just get back to Konoha. Can you walk?"

"Shouldn't he—be asking you that?" Sasuke grunted as he pulled a kunai out of the remains of a log. The katana might have become his primary weapon, but he was not about to leave behind a perfectly good set of kunai.

The sudden silence behind him made him pause.

"Don't give me that look, Naruto," Sakura said, a little defensively. "I'm okay. It's healed."

A longer pause.

"I'm alright, Naruto!" Sakura sounded exasperated. "Thanks a lot, Sasuke, now he thinks I'm about to fall apart. Look—see? I'm fine! What more can I do to convince you?"

Sasuke turned to see Sakura standing, arms spread out for the inspection of an uncharacteristically sober Naruto. The blond considered her for a long moment, then said seriously, "You could take off your shirt…"

Sakura's eyes widened, then narrowed in fury. She brought her fist back and boxed Naruto upside the head before he could duck, sending him flying thirty feet across the valley. Sasuke's eyes widened. She was _strong._ This is _Sakura_?

She shook her fist at the blond, who was nursing his head and grinning unrepentantly. "You…you _pervert's student_!"

"Sakura-chaan" he replied, grinning, which wasn't an answer at all.

Sakura sighed and shook her head.

The blond ninja scrambled up and limped back to Sakura's side. He was the one person, Sasuke decided, who could possibly make a limp look bouncy.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, what's the plan?" Naruto asked, as if the entire episode had never happened.

Sakura frowned in thought. "We're too far from Konoha to make it there as we are. Our best bet is to get some distance from this place, then lie low until our injuries heal."

"There is a river a mile or so east of here. It could throw off any tracking techniques they might use."

Two heads swiveled to stare at him. "…You're coming with us?"

Sasuke scowled and looked away. "I have my own reasons for avoiding Akatsuki. Right now we have better chance together of avoiding them." Though that wasn't the only reason.

Sakura seemed hesitant, but she nodded at last. Naruto grinned at him like Sasuke had just handed him the world. "Alright! Team Seven together again!"

"Don't get any ideas, you moron. I'm not a leaf nin anymore."

Naruto's grin turned into a scowl. "Running away doesn't change things, teme. You can't just forget where you came from!"

"I can." Sasuke smirked and tapped his bare forehead. "I did."

Naruto growled. He might have attacked then and there if Sakura hadn't put a not-so-friendly arm around his shoulder.

"Alright!" she said a little too loudly. "Since there are Akatsuki nearby, I think we had better get going. It would be a shame if something held us up." Her glare underscored the veiled threat. Sasuke said nothing; Naruto, in a rare show of sense, did the same, though he was still visibly seething. Sakura smiled sweetly. "That's what I thought. We'll make a distraction and head east for the river. How's your chakra, Naruto?" Sasuke knew a diversion when he heard one. Fortunately, Naruto didn't.

Naruto brightened and gave her a thumbs up. "Better than ever! Leave it to me!"

He brought his hands together in his trademark seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Twenty-one clones poofed into existence. It was a feeble number, Sasuke noted, compared to the throngs Naruto had conjured during their fight. Naruto—all twenty-two of him—switched hand seals, and two thirds of the bunshin became Sakuras and Sasukes. He was panting by the time he'd finished.

Sakura must have noticed too, because she put a hand on his arm. "That's plenty, Naruto."

"One more." He closed his eyes and made an extra clone. One henge later, a tall hunter nin with dark spiky hair and a bone-white mask looked down at them. The modified clone nodded once to Naruto and took off out of the valley. He vanished a moment later into the forest. The blond shinobi put his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. Then he straightened and grinned.

"Ready?" Sakura asked. Sasuke nodded once when she looked at him.

"Hai!" Naruto saluted. The clones grouped themselves in threes and stood waiting for Sakura's signal.

"Okay, scatter!" They took off eastward. At the same time, the groups of clones scattered to every point of the compass. The two leaf nin let Sasuke take the lead, and he sped through the trees toward the river. He almost laughed at their utter naiveté for letting a potential enemy lead them through unknown territory. Almost. What stopped him was the niggling suspicion—one that refused to be ignored—that they trusted him, Sasuke.

Their teammate.

It was an unsettling thought.

**-0-**


	4. Distractions

**A/N: Meh. More useless filler. This chapter feels so forced and disjointed. Oh well... Hey! This story has over 400 hits! Coolness! And at least a dozen readers have favorited, commented or put me on watch. You know who you are; you people have totally made my day. -HJ  
**

* * *

_- _

_Splash!_

For what felt like the hundredth time, Sakura heard the ninja behind her crash into the water. She turned around to watch him being swept downstream, sputtering and cursing.

"Concentrate on your feet, Naruto!" She called as he tried to crawl out on the surface of the water.

Right now, Sakura felt like a live wire, alert and ready for anything. The soldier pills Sasuke had provided had given all of them a new burst of energy, though Sakura knew they'd be worse off in the long run. The catch with soldier pills was that they did not give the body nutrition; just like the Celestial Gates released chakra-related barriers, they tapped into her body's reserves, burning stores of fat (and in extreme cases, musculature, then vital systems) and pouring everything into a few hours of increased productivity. The drop in energy after this rush would kill the average civilian. For a shinobi it was like the world's biggest hangover.

"…pathetic."

She shook her head without turning, sensing the dark-haired ninja standing at her shoulder. "It's not really his fault," she murmured. "Yamato's secondary seal—one that suppresses the Kyuubi—makes good chakra control practically impossible." She sighed. "Until it wears off, he's going to have trouble."

"Wears off?" he echoed.

"It was supposed to be a temporary fix, just in case, while Yamato was gone." There had been a massive disturbance in the Nara forest, and Yamato had been commissioned to help out, along with Kakashi, Sai, and many other shinobi. It was part of the reason only Sakura had come after Naruto. Part of the reason. "It's not powerful enough to affect the original seal for long. In a week or so it'll be useless."

"Should I be worried?" she heard the smirk in his voice.

Sakura's mouth quirked. "Not unless you plan on killing me again." She felt him flinch at that, and couldn't help but feel some satisfaction in getting a reaction out of the stoic shinobi.

"I…didn't…" he began stiffly, but she cut him off.

"No, you didn't. But you intended it for Naruto," she said quietly. "That's one thing that hasn't changed, Sasuke-kun. Naruto will die to protect people precious to him. And so will I."

Naruto jogged up to them, sopping wet and looking annoyed. "Why are you two standing around? I thought we were in a hurry!"

"You're the one holding us up," Sakura pointed out, a little sharper than she meant to. "Come on, we're only a few miles away." They had decided on some forested hills as their stopping place, since the terrain would be rocky enough to minimize traces, and the woods would provide plenty of food and cover.

Naruto brightened. "Yosh! Let's go!" He sprinted ahead of them, sending up a white jet of water in his wake. Sakura couldn't help but smile, despite her foul mood. Nothing could get him down for long, even though it was only a matter of time before—

_Splash!_

Sakura rolled her eyes.

**--**

They ran into some of our doubles," Naruto announced suddenly. They had finally left the river and were making their way through the woods, Naruto leaping from branch to branch just ahead of Sakura and Sasuke.

Sasuke privately thought it was rather childish—Naruto still had to be first, even if it was just traveling. Of course, that meant that if they did run into anything unpleasant, Naruto would stumble right into it. Sasuke had decided not to point out that minor detail. It would be more entertaining to see him find it out the hard way.

Sakura looked surprised. "You're still maintaining the jutsu?" Considering the sheer distance they had covered, it was an impressive feat.

Naruto nodded, frowning in preoccupation. "I had to cut it down to three teams. One of them ran into these guys. There were two of them—one was this weird scarred guy with a big scythe-thingy"—Naruto waved his arms vaguely—"And the other one was some kind of fish-freak. Creepy teeth." Naruto shuddered expressively.

"How do you know that?" Sakura asked curiously.

The blond blinked. "The clones," he said, as if it explained everything. "The fish guy destroyed us—er, them with his big sword."

Sasuke cocked an eyebrow. He knew that shadow clones were 'real' bodies, rather than illusions, but Naruto spoke as if he'd gained information from them. Did Naruto have some sort of mental link with his clones? Sasuke filed that away in his mind as potentially useful information.

"Then they know it was a decoy," he said aloud.

Naruto grinned wickedly. "I bet they weren't happy."

Sakura snorted. "Moron."

Naruto shrugged. "It was just a delaying tactic, anyway. The false trails the clones made might take a week to figure out. Well—no reason to leave the others out, now—" Naruto lifted two fingers in a seal that released the jutsu. He straightened visibly, as if a weight had dropped off his shoulders. "Phew!" he whistled. "Much better." The jinchuuriki grinned and bounded ahead.

"Energy freak," Sakura grumbled. Sasuke privately agreed.

--

The three shinobi set up camp and gratefully collapsed. Keeping a steady pace—slow for shinobi, but still faster than the average man could run—they had been able to put a fair distance between them and the battleground by nightfall.

The soldier pills' boost had long gone. Sasuke was already dozing against a tree, looking even paler than usual. Sakura guessed he was as tired as she was, or else hiding injuries from the fight. Maybe both.

Sakura knew they should set up safeguards and gather supplies; she spent ten minutes arguing with her body, trying to convince it that it was important enough to get up for.

This problem was solved as two Narutos staggered into the clearing under a pile of deadwood. They set down their burdens, exchanged identical looks, and went to kick the Naruto lying flat on his back in the middle of the clearing. Naruto sat up and glared at his doubles; they glared right back. Sakura watched this silent exchange with sleepy bemusement. Finally the real Naruto climbed to his feet, muttering, and followed the bunshin out of the the clearing.

One of the clones called back over his shoulder to Sakura, "Traps. We'll be back soon."

Sakura nodded, content that her teammate would handle it. She leaned back against a tree trunk and closed her eyes. The soldier pill's effects had faded, leaving her drained and shaky. She winced as the prickly bark caught at the raw skin on her lower back; the outer evidence of her wound was still healing. Her energies had been concentrated on patching up the near-fatal inner injuries, and even with Naruto's help, she'd barely done it. She didn't open her eyes as she heard Naruto throw himself down beside her.

"Finished?" she murmured.

"Yeah," he mumbled sleepily. "Can't keep up the clones…traps'll stop 'em, though…we'll know if anyone does…" he yawned, and was asleep in the next breath.

Sakura followed him, letting darkness drag her into oblivion.

**--**


End file.
